John Jay Youth Lacrosse is excited for another upcoming season and to announce additional changes to help grow the game and make youth lacrosse accessible to all kids and families in our community. In support of this goal, we need your help to build our membership, to “Play it Forward” by helping to support these important changes.

MAKING THE GAME MORE ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE FOR ALL KIDS

One of the core missions of John Jay Youth Lacrosse is to grow the game and bring lacrosse to new players each year. To do that, we have introduced several programs and policies in recent years:

New Saturday skills clinics in the spring for our youngest players in K-1. Also, for all grades we expanded our low-cost spring and fall clinics led by John Jay varsity coaches and players (2017); and

Directed more resources to further support a great lacrosse experience for our children (upgraded our coaching staff across all ages, proper equipment, safety training, better referees, and scheduling).

To help support these program, JJYL has raised funds through our annual dinner and teh generous donations of the community and our members. In addition, in 2015/2016, JJYL alums and parents created a capital fund to support the free equipment loaner program for the next 10-15 years. These donations have been vital to allow for these new programs that support youth lacrosse in our town.

ANNOUNCING MORE CHANGES IN 2018

We are not done. Many of you have provided feedback on how we can improve and we have listened. In 2018 we are drastically reducing the cost to play on the boy’s side to further increase access and affordability, and to more closely align fees with the girls program (which have been historically lower than boys and remain so). The new fees for the 2018 season are as follows:

Boys 3-8 will be capped at $350, a reduction of as much as $145 for grades 5-8.

Girls fees held flat at $150 (K-2), $275 (3-4) and $300 (5-8)

To help fund this decrease, we have reduced expenses across our program and will introduce a new approach to uniforms for the boys program (after a successful pilot on the girl’s side). The uniform program aims to eliminate the need to buy a full uniform each season (more details on how this works is at the end of this note). We believe the new policy will make better use of the costs associated with purchasing uniforms and practice jerseys.

WE NEED YOU ON THE TEAM – PLAY IT FORWARD

JJYL is a not-for-profit, membership driven program. JJYL has taken important steps to make the game more affordable and to deliver a better experience for all our players. We need your help in 2018 as we take these important steps and to help “Play It Forward”.

In 2018, we are building our membership among current and alumni families and players to help support high quality, accessible and affordable youth lacrosse. At registration, we hope you will consider an additional donation to support the program and costs to deliver a high-quality program for your child and others. Any donation is appreciated. Donations of $195 will support one of our younger players for a season, while $350 will support one of our older players.

Support levels include:

$10 – 50 Member & Sponsor

$50 – 100 Crease Club

$100-200 Man-Up Team

$200-500 Fast Break Circle

$500-1000 Bar Down Club

$1000-5000 Purple and White Team

$5000+ Founding Member

JJYL alums and parents have created a $10,000 matching gift program. For every dollar raised above, the program will match your gift dollar for dollar. Your membership donation goes further and ensures JJYL’s ability to deliver the improvements outlined above.

We are also reaching out to our JJYL alums and families, asking for their continued commitment to provide support to kids in town to enjoy the playing experience and training that they and their children received. JJYL is the launching pad for countless and successful high school, college and professional lacrosse and business careers

We hope that all our members of our community who have the means to do so will consider donating to this capital fund for the good of the game and our community. You can do so at registration which opens on January 1.

JJYL is introducing a new approach to uniforms, after a successful pilot in the girls program in 2017.

Instead of ordering new uniforms each year and building that cost into registration, we have locked in on a uniform style and all existing players have the option of keeping their uniform from 2017, or order a new uniform separate from the registration fee. The girls have already implemented this uniform program and will continue to do so in 2018.